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mini hanks of easter yarn

dyeing yarn with easter egg dye

I have never considered myself a yarn dyer. I have so many odds and ends in my stash, I can’t imagine ever needing a specific color for anything. But while I was cleaning up from Easter egg dyeing last Saturday, I decided to dunk a few balls of yarn in the leftover dye just for fun.

dyeing yarn with easter egg dye

It was a really sloppy attempt. I soaked my yarn under the kitchen faucet before plopping it into the cups. I let them sit for a long while before I remembered to microwave them. Some of the mini-hanks were wound too tightly and are pale on the inside. The colors, however, are absolutely beautiful! They make me want to try my hand at dyeing a larger amount.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with this little bit of yarn. Maybe I’ll crochet some eggs.

details: The white yarn is from my stash of unraveled sweaters. I didn’t follow a tutorial for dyeing the yarn. If you google “easter egg dye yarn” you’ll get a bunch of links.

I haven’t been spending a lot of time in front of my computer lately. Thanks for putting up with all of my instagram photos.

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diy hair elastic holders

diy hair elastic holders

If you have long hair, how do you store your hair ties? I used to keep them on the original cardboards, but they are kind of flimsy and tear easily. I wanted something more sturdy.

Using the plastic leftover from making my place mat sock blockers, I traced the original cardboards and came up with these.

diy hair elastic holders

We’ve been using them for awhile and they are holding up great. It’s really nice to pull them out the basket and not have the elastics fall off. You could use any kind of plastic that can be cut with scissors or even the thick chipboard from a legal notepad.

embarrassing: I went to link to my place mat sock holder post and can’t find it. Did I not share them on the blog? How is that possible? Here’s the tutorial I used. I’ll have to get a pic to share with you.

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drop spindles handmade by my husband

handmade drop spindle

First off: No, I am not starting another hobby! I’ve been thinking of plying some of my lighter weight sweater yarn to make a worsted weight. I looked at a few drop spindles online, but it seemed like such a silly thing to spend money on when I didn’t even know if it would work.

I thought maybe I could make a DIY spindle to try it out and if I had good luck, maybe I’d buy one. On Saturday, I asked my husband if he would pick up a wooden door pull for me. I already had some dowels and hooks. When I showed him what I was planning to do he said, “Give me a few minutes,” and headed to the garage.

handmade drop spindle

Within 15 minutes I had two drop spindles — a top and a bottom whorl. He used a drill hole saw, which worked perfectly. Aren’t crafty husbands great? (I doubt he’d consider himself crafty, but I think he is!)

I played around with them a little bit over the weekend and I think plying the sweater yarn might actually work! I hope to do another post soon with examples.

project details: The inspiration for these came from the one Abby Franquemont uses in her Drop Spindle Basics video.

Here are the specs: My husband used a 2 1/8 inch hole saw with a 3/8 inch mandrel. That gave him a 2 inch circle that fit my 1/4 inch dowels. The original wood was a 1 x 3 x 6 inch piece of poplar. He smoothed the edges with a file and sandpaper. If you have any questions, put them in the comments and I’ll get him to reply.